I see my damage variate a lot. Aside from glancing, I will hit a gold hit with upheaval (1st hit of combo) on straw man from 311 to 411.
I thought it was hit rating at first but it isn't when I increased and decreased my hit rating and the variant was still there.

In a weapon it will have weapon damage an in parenthesis a variant. Is that the REAL weapon damage and not the bold number. If so, that changes everything about weapon damage.